Trump: Rioters in deadly Capitol insurrection posed ‘zero threat’

Trump himself urged his supporters to march on the Capitol in a fiery speech outside the White House prior to the siege. “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said, among other incendiary statements. One week later, the House impeached him for a second time for inciting the insurrection.

Trump was acquitted by the Senate, but his trial in the chamber presented previously unseen video showing just how close the rioters came to lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence. House impeachment managers also showed footage of violence by the rioters against responding law enforcement officers.

Earlier Thursday, seven House committees launched a sweeping investigation into the federal government’s handling of the insurrection, which law enforcement officials have testified was exacerbated by the Pentagon delaying the deployment of National Guard troops and federal intelligence authorities providing insufficient warnings of the attack.

Prosecutors have arrested more than 300 participants in the Capitol attack, and the former leader of the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation said in an interview Sunday that he believes evidence would support a charge of “seditious conspiracy” against some of the rioters. The head of the Capitol Police officers’ union has indicated that roughly 140 officers were injured in the insurrection.